700 classrooms under DepEd program unfinished

AT LEAST 784 classrooms under the second phase of a public-private partnership (PPP) project of the Department of Education (DepEd) during the past administration were not yet completed and were still being constructed until today, a top official of the agency in-charge on schools facilities said over the weekend.

The construction of the second batch of the PPP for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP) was started about three years ago but there are still some pending matters that have been completed by the still unfinished classrooms, according to DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua.

“So far in the PSIP 2, we have something like 784 classrooms that we need to finish [the construction]. . . basically these [classrooms]were located in the 352 sites,” Pascua said.

The official cited some problems in the construction of classrooms under PSIP because of several calamities and site situations.

“The sites were not immediately checked by the contractors when they implemented the project, and they have problems in the far-flung areas. This is a similar issue reflective in the first school building programs, which do not have hauling walls and soil testing . . . it’s like one-size-fits-all, and they have problems on that. That’s why we’re yet about to wrap up all the construction of PSIP this year,” he said.